This time around, Heat scorch Sixers from the start

PHILADELPHIA — The mood in the building was the same. The team in the opposing locker room was the same. So was it a stretch to think the result, too, could be the same?

Not that long ago, the 76ers opened their season with an unthinkable victory over the reigning champion Miami Heat. That was a mere 11 weeks ago.

“Personally,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said, “it seems like a thousand years ago. It seems like an eternity ago.”

It wasn’t the Sixers’ doing that they ran into a Miami squad on its first three-game losing streak in more than two years. And the Heat were on a mission to keep from running that skid to four.

Miami demolished the Sixers, 101-86, with the hosts playing out a 48-minute string at Wells Fargo Center that wasn’t nearly as magical as their meeting three months ago.

The Sixers (13-26) shot 36.9 from the field, committed 23 turnovers, and never really had a prayer against the Heat (28-11), who mounted a double-digit lead eight minutes into the game and only added to it as the game wore on.

Though video replays will verify their involvement in the game, the Sixers’ top three players were invisible. Spencer Hawes had the least-effective double-double, with 10 points and 10 rebounds on 5-for-14 shooting. Thaddeus Young turned in a rare clunker, misfiring on all but three of his 13 looks, and Evan Turner didn’t do enough to be a factor.

More disconcerting, for the Sixers, was how well Miami defended against rookie Michael Carter-Williams. The Heat took away the point guard’s right hand, forcing him to go left and forcing him into five turnovers in 24 minutes.

Brown’s team shot a season-low 10 percent from 3-point range, hitting only 2 of 20 long-range looks. The team that leads the league in turnovers had 10 at the break.

LeBron James fell two rebounds shy of a triple-double, totaling 21 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. Chris Bosh had 25 points on 11-for-18 shooting and the Heat, who shot 47.5 percent from the floor, were on cruise control for most of the second half.

Taking their foot slightly off the pedal, the Heat allowed the Sixers to claw within 14 points, at 81-67, with 7 minutes, 30 seconds to go in the fourth quarter.

The loss capped the Sixers’ four-game homestand, on which they won just one game. They open up a three-game road trip Saturday at Chicago.

On any given night, the Sixers need everything to go their way to avoid getting laughed out of the gym against the Heat. Friday, they bit on ball fakes. They dribbled into corners, and into double-teams. They over-dribbled, not knowing when to give it up. And they missed shots. A lot of them.

On this night, 6-foot-4 Dwyane Wade rejected the shot of 7-footer Dewayne Dedmon. On this night, deepest of reserves Brandon Davies was left to play LeBron James 1-on-1 on consecutive fourth-quarter possessions, and James did what James does.

This one just wasn’t meant to be for the Sixers.

Brown was asked before the game if there was anything his guys could take from that 114-100 win over Miami Oct. 30, the one that turned heads league-wide. Brown answered, without hesitation.

“I’d like to say you could. In my heart of hearts, I don’t really think so,” Brown said. “Perhaps there is the reality to our young team that they were able to beat an NBA champion, and you can’t take that away from them, but from a reality standpoint for me, that game is so far a time gone by.”

Their coach’s premonitions were validated eight minutes into the game.

That’s when the Heat built their lead into a double-digit margin. Using crisp ball movement, the Heat recorded nine assists on their 11 first-quarter buckets, with Chris Bosh scoring 10 points and James and Shane Battier scoring six apiece in the frame.

Against an all-bench lineup from the Sixers, Miami opened the second quarter the way it had closed the one that preceded it. Outside of the tumble James took, on a foul from behind by Turner, the Heat were in control. They carried a 58-41 lead into halftime, and the result of this game was never really in question.